Ukraine cyber attack on 27/6/2017

Ukraine cyber attack on 27/6/2017

Ukraine’s national bank, state power company and largest airport are among the targets of a huge cyber attack on government infrastructure.

Rozenko Pavlo, the deputy Prime Minister, said he and other members of the cabinet were unable to access their computers.

He tweeted an image of his PC displaying a message claiming a disk “contains errors and needs to be prepared”, urging the user not to turn it off.

Images from other affected computers showed what appeared to be ransomware, demanding a payment of $300 (£235) in Bitcoin to re-gain access to encrypted files.

Ukrainian state-run aircraft manufacturer Antonov was among the companies hit, along with state power distributor Ukrenergo, which said the attack did not affect power supplies.

The National Bank of Ukraine said an “unknown virus” was to blame, saying several unnamed Ukrainian banks were affected along with financial firms.

“As a result of cyber attacks, these banks have difficulties with customer service and banking operations,” a statement said.

“The National Bank bank is confident that the banking infrastructure’s defence against cyber fraud is properly set up and attempted cyber attacks on banks’ IT systems will be neutralised.”

Oschadbank, one of Ukraine’s largest state-owned lenders, said some of its services had been affected by a “hacking attack” but guaranteed that customer data was safe.

Computers and departure boards at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev – the largest in Ukraine – were also down.

“The official site of the airport and the scoreboard with the schedule of flights aren’t working!” the airport’s acting director, Pavel Ryabikin, wrote on Facebook.

The cyber attack came hours after a high-ranking intelligence officer was assassinated in a car bombing in Kiev.

Police said Colonel Maksim Shapoval, a member of the defence ministry’s main intelligence directorate, was killed in the “terrorist act” on Tuesday.

Ukraine has blamed Russia for repeated cyber attacks targeting crucial infrastructure during the past three years, including one on its power grid that left part of western Ukraine temporarily without electricity in December 2015.